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Jungle Book

Introduction

The Jungle Book cycle, here receiving its first recording, was composed and reworked over a period of fifty-nine years. Its genesis dates from December 1898 when the young Percy composed three settings, a fourth following in January 1899. Of the settings composed between 1898 and 1906, Grainger wrote in a programme note: ‘These settings [were] written under the strong spell cast upon me by Kipling’s Jungle verses (the passion for the face of virgin nature, the intimate sympathy with the wild creatures that roam the jungle, the revolt against civilization …’ And later in a preface to the published score: ‘My Kipling “Jungle Book” Cycle, begun in 1898 and finished in 1947, was composed as a protest against civilization.’ In this ‘nature’ music, with its irregular rhythms and unrestricted harmonies, Grainger points the way to his interest in the musical freedom which was to culminate in his ‘Free Music’, which he first thought of at the age of ten when seeing the waves lapping against his sailing boat on the Albert Park Lagoon in Melbourne. The cycle was eventually published in its entirety in 1958. Grainger wrote to publisher Max Steffans: ‘I AM SO GRATEFUL TO PUBLISH MY CYCLE COMPLETE.’ Between then and Grainger’s death three years later, the work received scant attention and it was to be another twenty-one years before the work received its British premiere at the 1982 Aldeburgh Music Festival.

The cycle consists of eleven movements: five are for choir alone (with three of these being for men’s voices only) whilst the remaining six have instrumental accompaniment. Most of the poems used represent the mankind-less world of the animal kingdom, where Kipling views the world through the eyes of wild beasts or Mowgli, the young human initiated into the laws and dangers of the jungle by the tiger and the bear in The Jungle Books. The young Grainger felt himself to be something of a Mowgli figure, and identified strongly with the poem The only son where the subject matter is of a boy’s dreams of life amongst the wolves and his longing to learn if these dreams are true. About The Inuit, the fourth movement of the cycle Grainger wrote: ‘The urge behind this poem is the very strongest and most pronounced root emotion of my life: the love of savagery, the belief that savages are sweeter and more peaceable and artistic than civilized people, the belief that primitiveness is purity and civilization filthy corruption, the agony of seeing civilization advance and pass its blighting hand over the world.’ Grainger was not alone in his admiration of Kipling, and the names of two other composers who composed Jungle Book music come to mind: Charles Koechlin and Miklós Rózsa. Koechlin’s vast symphonic poem occupied him from 1899 to 1950 (a timescale similar to Grainger’s involvement). Koechlin also set three Kipling poems in his Op 18, one of which, Night-song in the jungle, is contemporary with Grainger’s original setting of the same poem. Rózsa composed the music for Alexander Korda’s epic 1943 film of The Jungle Book starring the elephant boy Sabu as Mowgli. Grainger’s Jungle Book cycle, like Koechlin’s Jungle Book, is central to the composer’s long and creative life. Each work in their respective cycles displays specific compositional techniques and an homogenous unifying thread—despite the fact that individual movements of both cycles were not composed in the order they are to be performed. Grainger’s Jungle Book provides a key to understanding his fundamental philosophy and spirit. He writes: ‘My effort even in my young days was to wrench the listener’s heart with my chords. It is a subtle matter for music is not made agonizing merely by sharp discords any more than literature is made agonizing by crude events. It is the contrast between the sweet and the harsh that is heart-rending.’

The first movement of the Jungle Book cycle is taken from Kipling’s Plain Tales from the Hills where the verse, headed From the Unpublished Papers of McIntosh Jallaludin, introduces the story ‘To be Filed for Reference’. The title is Grainger’s own and was composed between 20 July 1901 and 19 December 1904 when it was given to his mother for Christmas. The scoring was later revised in 1923.

The second movement is the first of the a cappella settings for mixed choir and is a four-stanza verse from the story ‘Letting in the Jungle’ from The Second Jungle Book. It was composed between 14 and 20 June 1905 and presented as a birthday greeting for his mother on 3 July of the same year.

The third movement is the first of the a cappella settings for male voices and is an eight-line verse chapter heading for ‘Mowgli’s Brothers’ from The Jungle Book. It was originally composed on 20 December 1898 and the last seven bars were revised on 2 February 1924.

The fourth movement is again for a cappella mixed chorus. The text is an eight-line verse heading for the story ‘Quiquern’ in The Second Jungle Book. It was composed in 1902 and slightly revised in 1907. The title is Grainger’s own: ‘Inuit’ refers to the indigenous Eskimo peoples of the Arctic regions.

The fifth movement, considered by Grainger as the pearl of the set, tells of the singing of the seal-rookeries on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea about 250 miles north of the Aleutian Islands, and the coming of the sealers to cull them. Entitled ‘Lukannon’ by Kipling, it is from ‘The White Seal’ in The Jungle Book and is described by Kipling as ‘a sort of very sad seal National Anthem’. Grainger originally set this poem for male voices a cappella between 27 and 29 December 1898 using all three verses, each with a refrain chorus; he revised the work on 28 May 1941 when it was offered as a birthday gift to the memory of his beloved mother. In the revision only two of the verses are used for male voices a cappella: the middle section for mixed voices, harmonium and strings is sung to the first refrain chorus. Here Grainger paints an icy landscape of stark beauty with the use of parallel fifths. In the central section the choir sings antiphonally with dissonant clashes against sustained chromatic chords which increase layer upon layer, capturing in sound the primitive waste and the happy song of nature ‘in the raw’ in a magical way. There is no room for the comparatively safe world of the garden here!

The sixth movement, the second of the male voice a cappella settings, is from the verse heading to the story ‘Red Dog’ from The Second Jungle Book and was composed on 13/14 May 1941. The uncanny sound of voices imitating the baying of wolves is heard at the close of this movement and again points the way to Grainger’s ‘Free Music’.

The seventh movement, for mixed voices and ‘room-music’, is the verse heading to the story ‘Cupid’s Arrows’ from Plain Tales from the Hills and was composed on 8–11 March 1906.

The eighth movement, for male voices and plucked strings, is taken from the story ‘Mowgli’s Brothers’ in The Jungle Book and was composed on 1 January 1899. ‘Seeonee’, usually spelt ‘Seoni’, is a district of Central India. In this setting Grainger asks that all notes marked sforzando should be sung with barking, yelping violence.

The ninth movement is the third and final setting for male voices a cappella. This is an eight-line verse heading for the story ‘Tiger! Tiger!’ from The Jungle Book and this setting was composed on 24 March 1905. In instrumental terms Grainger made other versions of this piece for brass ensemble, cello ensemble, recorder ensemble, harmonium duet, and piano solo: a good example of making his music suit whatever resources were available.

The tenth and penultimate movement is taken from Many Inventions. Grainger’s setting starts with the fourth line of Kipling’s poem. The seventh line follows, then all lines to the end. Work began on this setting in July 1945 and the finished manuscript was made on 13 February 1947 with the scoring finalised between 12 and 19 March the same year.

The eleventh and final movement of the cycle, for mixed voices and ‘room-music’ accompaniment, is the five-stanza verse that ends the story ‘Letting in the Jungle’ from The Second Jungle Book. It was composed between 25 April and 29 June 1903 and given as a birthday gift to Grainger’s mother the same year. The scoring was revised in 1907 and again in 1923.

Details

By the Hoof of the Wild Goat uptossed From the cliff where she lay in the Sun Fell the Stone To the Tarn where the daylight is lost, So she fell from the light of the Sun, And alone!

Now the fall was ordained from the first With the Goat and the Cliff and the Tarn, But the Stone Knows only her life is accursed As she sinks in the depths of the Tarn, And alone!

O Thou Who hast builded the World, O Thou Who hast lighted the Sun, O Thou Who hast darkened the Tarn, Judge Thou The sin of the Stone that was hurled By the Goat from the light of the Sun, As she sinks in the mire of the Tarn, Even now—even now—even now!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The Jungle Book cycle, here receiving its first recording, was composed and reworked over a period of fifty-nine years. Its genesis dates from December 1898 when the young Percy composed three settings, a fourth following in January 1899. Of the settings composed between 1898 and 1906, Grainger wrote in a programme note: ‘These settings [were] written under the strong spell cast upon me by Kipling’s Jungle verses (the passion for the face of virgin nature, the intimate sympathy with the wild creatures that roam the jungle, the revolt against civilization …’ And later in a preface to the published score: ‘My Kipling “Jungle Book” Cycle, begun in 1898 and finished in 1947, was composed as a protest against civilization.’ In this ‘nature’ music, with its irregular rhythms and unrestricted harmonies, Grainger points the way to his interest in the musical freedom which was to culminate in his ‘Free Music’, which he first thought of at the age of ten when seeing the waves lapping against his sailing boat on the Albert Park Lagoon in Melbourne. The cycle was eventually published in its entirety in 1958. Grainger wrote to publisher Max Steffans: ‘I AM SO GRATEFUL TO PUBLISH MY CYCLE COMPLETE.’ Between then and Grainger’s death three years later, the work received scant attention and it was to be another twenty-one years before the work received its British premiere at the 1982 Aldeburgh Music Festival.

The cycle consists of eleven movements: five are for choir alone (with three of these being for men’s voices only) whilst the remaining six have instrumental accompaniment. Most of the poems used represent the mankind-less world of the animal kingdom, where Kipling views the world through the eyes of wild beasts or Mowgli, the young human initiated into the laws and dangers of the jungle by the tiger and the bear in The Jungle Books. The young Grainger felt himself to be something of a Mowgli figure, and identified strongly with the poem The only son where the subject matter is of a boy’s dreams of life amongst the wolves and his longing to learn if these dreams are true. About The Inuit, the fourth movement of the cycle Grainger wrote: ‘The urge behind this poem is the very strongest and most pronounced root emotion of my life: the love of savagery, the belief that savages are sweeter and more peaceable and artistic than civilized people, the belief that primitiveness is purity and civilization filthy corruption, the agony of seeing civilization advance and pass its blighting hand over the world.’ Grainger was not alone in his admiration of Kipling, and the names of two other composers who composed Jungle Book music come to mind: Charles Koechlin and Miklós Rózsa. Koechlin’s vast symphonic poem occupied him from 1899 to 1950 (a timescale similar to Grainger’s involvement). Koechlin also set three Kipling poems in his Op 18, one of which, Night-song in the jungle, is contemporary with Grainger’s original setting of the same poem. Rózsa composed the music for Alexander Korda’s epic 1943 film of The Jungle Book starring the elephant boy Sabu as Mowgli. Grainger’s Jungle Book cycle, like Koechlin’s Jungle Book, is central to the composer’s long and creative life. Each work in their respective cycles displays specific compositional techniques and an homogenous unifying thread—despite the fact that individual movements of both cycles were not composed in the order they are to be performed. Grainger’s Jungle Book provides a key to understanding his fundamental philosophy and spirit. He writes: ‘My effort even in my young days was to wrench the listener’s heart with my chords. It is a subtle matter for music is not made agonizing merely by sharp discords any more than literature is made agonizing by crude events. It is the contrast between the sweet and the harsh that is heart-rending.’

The first movement of the Jungle Book cycle is taken from Kipling’s Plain Tales from the Hills where the verse, headed From the Unpublished Papers of McIntosh Jallaludin, introduces the story ‘To be Filed for Reference’. The title is Grainger’s own and was composed between 20 July 1901 and 19 December 1904 when it was given to his mother for Christmas. The scoring was later revised in 1923.

One moment past our bodies cast No shadow on the plain; Now clear and black they stride our track, And we run home again. In morning-hush, each rock and bush Stands hard, and high, and raw: Then give the Call: ‘Good rest to all That keep the Jungle Law!’

Now horn and pelt our peoples melt In covert to abide; Now crouched and still, to cave and hill Our Jungle Barons glide. Now, stark and plain, Man’s oxen strain, That draw the new-yoked plough; Now striped and dread the dawn is red Above the lit talao.

Ho! Get to lair! The sun’s aflare Behind the breathing grass: And creaking through the young bamboo The warning whispers pass. By day made strange, the woods we range With blinking eyes we scan; While down the skies the wild duck cries: ‘The Day—the Day to Man!’

The dew is dried that drenched our hide, Or washed about our way; And where we drank, the puddled bank Is crisping into clay. The traitor Dark gives up each mark Of stretched or hooded claw: Then hear the Call: ‘Good rest to all That keep the Jungle Law!’

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The second movement is the first of the a cappella settings for mixed choir and is a four-stanza verse from the story ‘Letting in the Jungle’ from The Second Jungle Book. It was composed between 14 and 20 June 1905 and presented as a birthday greeting for his mother on 3 July of the same year.

Now Chil the Kite brings home the night That Mang the Bat sets free— The herds are shut in byre and hut, For loosed till dawn are we. This is the hour of pride and power, Talon and tush and claw. Oh, hear the call!—Good hunting all That keep the Jungle Law!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The third movement is the first of the a cappella settings for male voices and is an eight-line verse chapter heading for ‘Mowgli’s Brothers’ from The Jungle Book. It was originally composed on 20 December 1898 and the last seven bars were revised on 2 February 1924.

The People of the Eastern Ice, they are melting like the snow— They beg for coffee and sugar; they go where the white men go. The People of the Western Ice, they learn to steal and fight: They sell their furs to the trading-post: they sell their soul to the white. The People of the Southern Ice, they trade with the whaler’s crew; Their women have many ribbons, but their tents are torn and few. But the People of the Elder Ice, beyond the white man’s ken— Their spears are made of the narwhal horn, and they are the last of Men!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The fourth movement is again for a cappella mixed chorus. The text is an eight-line verse heading for the story ‘Quiquern’ in The Second Jungle Book. It was composed in 1902 and slightly revised in 1907. The title is Grainger’s own: ‘Inuit’ refers to the indigenous Eskimo peoples of the Arctic regions.

I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!) Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell rolled; I heard them lift the chorus that drowned the breakers’ song— The beaches of Lukannon—two million voices strong!

The song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons, The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the dunes, The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to flame— The beaches of Lukannon—before the sealers came!

I met my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered band. Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land; Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and tame, And still we sing Lukannon—before the sealers came.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The fifth movement, considered by Grainger as the pearl of the set, tells of the singing of the seal-rookeries on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea about 250 miles north of the Aleutian Islands, and the coming of the sealers to cull them. Entitled ‘Lukannon’ by Kipling, it is from ‘The White Seal’ in The Jungle Book and is described by Kipling as ‘a sort of very sad seal National Anthem’. Grainger originally set this poem for male voices a cappella between 27 and 29 December 1898 using all three verses, each with a refrain chorus; he revised the work on 28 May 1941 when it was offered as a birthday gift to the memory of his beloved mother. In the revision only two of the verses are used for male voices a cappella: the middle section for mixed voices, harmonium and strings is sung to the first refrain chorus. Here Grainger paints an icy landscape of stark beauty with the use of parallel fifths. In the central section the choir sings antiphonally with dissonant clashes against sustained chromatic chords which increase layer upon layer, capturing in sound the primitive waste and the happy song of nature ‘in the raw’ in a magical way. There is no room for the comparatively safe world of the garden here!

For our white and our excellent nights—for the nights of swift running, Fair ranging, far-seeing, good hunting, sure cunning! For the smells of the dawning, untainted, ere dew has departed! For the rush through the mist, and the quarry blind-started! For the cry of our mates when the sambhur has wheeled and is standing at bay, For the risk and the riot of night! For the sleep at the lair-mouth by day— It is met, and we go to the fight. Bay! O Bay!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The sixth movement, the second of the male voice a cappella settings, is from the verse heading to the story ‘Red Dog’ from The Second Jungle Book and was composed on 13/14 May 1941. The uncanny sound of voices imitating the baying of wolves is heard at the close of this movement and again points the way to Grainger’s ‘Free Music’.

Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide, By the hot sun emptied, and blistered and dried; Long in the reh-grass, hidden and lone; Bund where the earth-rat’s mounds are strown; Cave in the bank where the sly stream steals; Aloe that stabs at the belly and heels, Jump if you dare on a steed untried— Safer it is to go wide—go wide! Hark, from in front where the best men ride;— ‘Pull to the off, boys! Wide! Go wide!’

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The seventh movement, for mixed voices and ‘room-music’, is the verse heading to the story ‘Cupid’s Arrows’ from Plain Tales from the Hills and was composed on 8–11 March 1906.

As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled Once, twice and again! And a doe leaped up, and a doe leaped up From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. This I, scouting alone, beheld, Once, twice and again!

As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled Once, twice and again! And a wolf stole back, and a wolf stole back To carry the word to the waiting pack, And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track Once, twice and again!

As the dawn was breaking the Wolf-Pack yelled Once, twice and again! Feet in the Jungle that leave no mark! Eyes that can see in the dark—the dark! Tongue—give tongue to it! Hark! Oh, Hark! Once, twice and again!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The eighth movement, for male voices and plucked strings, is taken from the story ‘Mowgli’s Brothers’ in The Jungle Book and was composed on 1 January 1899. ‘Seeonee’, usually spelt ‘Seoni’, is a district of Central India. In this setting Grainger asks that all notes marked sforzando should be sung with barking, yelping violence.

What of the hunting, hunter bold? Brother, the watch was long and cold. What of the quarry ye went to kill? Brother, he crops in the Jungle still.

Where is the power that made your pride? Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side. Where is the haste that ye hurry by? Brother, I go to my lair—to die!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The ninth movement is the third and final setting for male voices a cappella. This is an eight-line verse heading for the story ‘Tiger! Tiger!’ from The Jungle Book and this setting was composed on 24 March 1905. In instrumental terms Grainger made other versions of this piece for brass ensemble, cello ensemble, recorder ensemble, harmonium duet, and piano solo: a good example of making his music suit whatever resources were available.

[And] the only son lay down again and dreamed that he dreamed a dream. ‘Now was I born of womankind and laid in a mother’s breast? For I have dreamed of a shaggy hide whereon I went to rest. And was I born of woman kind and laid on a father’s arm? For I have dreamed of clashing teeth that guarded me from harm.

And was I born an only son and did I play alone? For I have dreamed of comrades twain that bit me to the bone. And did I break the barley-cake and steep it in the tyre? For I have dreamed of a youngling kid new-riven from the byre: For I have dreamed of a midnight sky and a midnight call to blood And red-mouthed shadows racing by, that thrust me from my food. ’Tis an hour yet and an hour yet to the rising of the moon, But I can see the black roof-tree as plain as it were noon. ’Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the trouping blackbuck go; But I can hear the little fawn that bleats behind the doe. ’Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the crop and the upland meet, But I can smell the wet dawn-wind that wakes the sprouting wheat. Unbar the door. I may not bide, but I must out and see If those are wolves that wait outside or my own kin to me!’

She loosed the bar, she slid the bolt, she opened the door anon, And a grey bitch-wolf came out of the dark and fawned on the only son!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The tenth and penultimate movement is taken from Many Inventions. Grainger’s setting starts with the fourth line of Kipling’s poem. The seventh line follows, then all lines to the end. Work began on this setting in July 1945 and the finished manuscript was made on 13 February 1947 with the scoring finalised between 12 and 19 March the same year.

I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines— I will call in the Jungle to stamp out your lines! The roofs shall fade before it, The house-beams shall fall; And the Karela, the bitter Karela, Shall cover it all!

In the gates of these your councils my people shall sing. In the doors of these your garners the Bat-folk shall cling; And the snake shall be your watchman, By a hearthstone unswept; For the Karela, the bitter Karela, Shall fruit where ye slept!

Ye shall not see my strikers; ye shall hear them and guess; By night, before the moon-rise, I will send for my cess, And the wolf shall be your herdsman By a landmark removed; For the Karela, the bitter Karela, Shall seed where ye loved!

I will reap your fields before you at the hands of a host; Ye shall glean behind my reapers for the bread that is lost; And the deer shall be your oxen On a headland untilled; For the Karela, the bitter Karela, Shall leaf where ye build!

I have untied against you the club-footed vines, I have sent in the Jungle to swamp out your lines. The trees—the trees are on you! The house-beams shall fall; And the Karela, the bitter Karela, Shall cover [you] it all!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The eleventh and final movement of the cycle, for mixed voices and ‘room-music’ accompaniment, is the five-stanza verse that ends the story ‘Letting in the Jungle’ from The Second Jungle Book. It was composed between 25 April and 29 June 1903 and given as a birthday gift to Grainger’s mother the same year. The scoring was revised in 1907 and again in 1923.